yaris-obd/readme.md

yaris-obd 🚗📡

A Raspberry Pi 3-based OBD-II, GPS, and dashcam system for my 2013 Toyota Yaris. It reads live vehicle data over USB, tracks position with a SIM868 GNSS/GSM HAT, logs everything locally, and serves a web UI over the car's own WiFi hotspot. The dashboard and pre-cached map work fully offline, while trip data and dashcam footage sync to a self-hosted remote server whenever an internet uplink is available.

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Screenshots

Dashboard — mobile (390 px) and desktop (1280 px):

Features

• 📊 Live OBD-II data over a cheap USB ELM327-compatible adapter: speed, RPM, coolant temperature, fuel level, throttle position, MIL status, stored DTCs, and odometer when the ECU supports it. Includes automatic background reconnects, serialized queries, and clear adapter/ELM327/ECU diagnostics
• 🛰️ Real GPS tracking via a Waveshare SIM868 GNSS/GSM/Bluetooth HAT, plotted live on an offline Leaflet map (pre-cached map tiles — no internet needed in the car). The module powers itself on through the HAT's GPIO PWRKEY wiring after a Pi power cycle
• 📶 Self-hosted WiFi hotspot so you can load the web UI on your phone from inside the car, with automatic switching back to home WiFi when it is available (http://yaris.local — no port number)
• 🎥 Dashcam file retrieval — detects a USB dashcam automatically (any brand/folder layout, no hardcoded device path), mounts it read-only, and safely copies footage locally. Verified against a real 28GB/87-file import. The web UI can also browse, sort, and delete individual or all videos directly from the connected dashcam with confirmed, temporary read-write operations, plus import one file or any checkbox selection instead of always importing the whole card
• ▶️ Local video library — browse imported clips with cached thumbnails and upload status, play H.264 footage inline with seeking, and delete only the local Pi copy. Optional retention can automatically remove older local copies after their exact content is confirmed uploaded
• ☁️ Remote upload — a self-hosted server (Flask + Postgres, server/) receives trip/GPS logs and dashcam footage over the internet (via Cloudflare Tunnel or a plain port-forward). Dashcam videos upload in resumable 40MB chunks (works around tunnel body-size limits and keeps the Pi's memory footprint flat regardless of file size); a UI toggle can pause dashcam uploads independently while trip logs keep syncing
• 🌐 Remote web portal — a login-protected browser portal at the same server URL (Phase 24+): trip history with OSM/CARTO live map and route replay, dashcam archive browsing with inline video player and Range-request seeking, overview stats dashboard, delete buttons for trips and clips, and a device-settings page for editing the synced owner/car/avatar values that the Pi pulls from the server. The portal can register multiple devices, reveal a one-time API key at creation/rotation time, and request a sync for a selected device. When the Pi has Sync with server enabled, those identity changes hot-reload into the running local UI on the next successful sync instead of waiting for a manual restart. Shared history.js code runs on both the Pi and the server — tile source and zoom limits are configured per-deployment via HTML data attributes. Accessible at https://your-cloudflare-tunnel-url/
• 📡 Optional cellular fallback through the SIM868 for small trip-log uploads when normal WiFi/Ethernet is unavailable (dashcam video stays off cellular)
• 🩺 Dedicated local status page with live Pi health, service states, uplink/server/GPS/OBD diagnostics, plus quick actions for server test, sync-now, uplink reconnect, and app restart
• 🗄️ Motion-aware local-first SQLite logging — five-second motion checks without five-second parked writes, plus retry-safe remote sync and automatic backoff
• 🌡️ Pi health monitoring — dashboard temperature, RAM, disk space, uptime, and explicit undervoltage/throttling warnings from the Raspberry Pi firmware
• 🔔 Offline-first alerts — a notification bell on every page reports check-engine state, storage pressure, upload backlog, temperature/power faults, and GPS loss while moving. Optional ntfy delivery is available but remains disabled until configured
• 🛣️ Trip history and route replay — detects motion from OBD wheel speed with sustained GPS displacement as a fallback, summarizes distance and speed in metric units (km / km/h), and replays each route as a line on the offline map with a timestamped play/pause timeline, moving marker, and live reverse-geocoded location name during scrubbing. Tap any trip row on mobile to load the route
• 🗺️ Offline reverse geocoding — a /api/geocode route on the Pi uses the reverse_geocoder library (20 MB world dataset, no internet needed) for city/region, and upgrades to Nominatim street-level when an internet uplink is available. Results are LRU-cached in-process. The browser never calls any external geocoding service
• 🖥️ Offline web UI built with Flask, Jinja, Bootstrap 5, Socket.IO, Chart.js, and Leaflet, all served locally with a shared responsive page shell
• 🔌 Headless Pi deployment as a self-restarting systemd service with a 10-second BCM2835 hardware watchdog, verified across a real reboot

Hardware

Part	Notes
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2	Web UI host, logger, uploader, and WiFi hotspot
Waveshare SIM868 HAT	GNSS (GPS) + optional GSM/GPRS uplink, unused Bluetooth
USB OBD-II adapter	PL2303-based, ELM327-compatible (originally Bluetooth, switched to USB)
TP-Link Archer T3U (RTL8812BU)	USB WiFi dongle — AC1300 dual-band, replaces onboard wlan0 for hotspot + uplink
USB dashcam	Any brand — detected as generic USB mass storage
2013 Toyota Yaris	The patient

See PLAN.md for full hardware bring-up notes (SIM868 jumper/UART setup, antenna gotchas, etc.) and the detailed project history.

Getting started

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python3 app.py

The app serves on http://<host>:5000. On the Pi it runs as a systemd service and is reachable with no port number at http://yaris.local after installing the mDNS and port-redirect setup. Deployment helpers for the app service, hotspot watcher, port redirect, and hardware watchdog are in deploy/. For a clean-install walkthrough on a fresh Pi, use deploy/readme.md. See PLAN.md for the full hardware/project history.

For the remote server (receives trip logs + dashcam uploads), see server/README.md.

Customizing device identity

The Pi displays a username, car model, and avatar image. All customizable values are stored in config/device.json (no code edits needed).

Edit device configuration

Edit config/device.json:

{
  "owner_name": "quoije",
  "car_model": "Yaris 2013",
  "device_name": "Yaris OBD",
  "avatar_path": "img/yaris.png"
}

Field	Location	Purpose
owner_name	Top-right of app topbar	Your name/username
car_model	Left sidebar (next to car icon)	Vehicle model/year
device_name	(Reserved)	Future server-side use in Phase 25.5
avatar_path	Top-right avatar circle	Profile picture (relative to static/)

After editing, restart the app:

# If running as a systemd service:
sudo systemctl restart yaris-obd.service

# If running manually:
# Ctrl+C and python3 app.py

Changing the profile picture

Option 1: Replace the default image file:

cp /path/to/your/image.png static/img/yaris.png

Option 2: Add your image to static/img/ and update avatar_path:

{
  "avatar_path": "img/my-avatar.png"
}

Important: Username and database filename

The local SQLite database filename is based on owner_name: db/sql/<owner_name>_<car_model>.db (via modules/app_sql.py).

If you change owner_name and already have trip data:

• The app will create a new database with the new name
• Your old database remains at db/sql/quoije_Yaris2013.db (orphaned)

To preserve your data:

# Option 1: Rename the database file
mv db/sql/quoije_Yaris2013.db "db/sql/YourName_YourCar.db"

# Option 2: Start fresh
rm db/sql/quoije_Yaris2013.db

Project status

Phases 1–24.7 are complete. The system is fully built and audited, ready for the Phase 25 real-vehicle test:

• Phases 1–23.5: core Pi system — GPS, OBD, dashcam, trip history, web UI redesign, WiFi upgrade, cellular fallback, alerts, settings, upload
• Phase 24: remote web portal at https://yaris.ceaf.dev/ — login-protected, trip history with CARTO live map, dashcam archive, delete, overview stats
• Phase 24.5: full code audit — 6 bugs fixed across Pi modules and server, 63 tests passing
• Phase 24.6: Yaris 2013 OBD compatibility hardening — _decode_odometer no longer kills the OBD session on unsupported PIDs, sensor globals reset on reconnect, OBD_SKIP_VOLTAGE_CHECK escape hatch for clone ELM327 adapters
• Phase 24.7: diagnostic script (scripts/diagnose.sh), map tile switch to CARTO, zoom limit fix

Next: Phase 25 — temporary real-vehicle test in the 2013 Yaris (see PLAN.md for the full acceptance checklist). Phase 26 (Android companion app) follows after that.

Phase 14 is partially complete: the Pi's hardware watchdog is deployed and reboot-verified. Read-only-root storage hardening is deferred until persistent storage is moved off the SD root partition, and clean shutdown still needs delayed-power or ignition-sense hardware.

The browser-based phone relay was removed after real-world testing confirmed that mobile browsers cannot reliably use the Pi's WiFi and cellular data simultaneously. A native Android companion is planned later instead (Phase 26).

The local Web UI includes a Settings page for safe runtime configuration: dashcam uploads, uploaded-video retention, cellular APN fallback, optional ntfy delivery, and alert thresholds. Notification secrets are write-only in the browser API, and network credentials that could lock the Pi out remain SSH/file-managed. When cellular is configured, small ntfy notifications use the SIM868 first and WiFi/Ethernet only as fallback; that modem path is implemented and mock-tested but still needs real-SIM/carrier verification.

The Pi can also join a configured phone hotspot for outbound internet when no SIM is available, including trip synchronization and WiFi dashcam uploads, with automatic recovery to home WiFi or the Pi-hosted local hotspot.

A temporary, removable real-vehicle compatibility test in the 2013 Yaris (Phase 25) precedes the final low-priority Android phase (Phase 26). Permanent installation is owner-handled and is not a roadmap phase. Full phase history, verification notes, and current scope live in PLAN.md.

Diagnostics & recovery

If something goes wrong in the car, SSH in and run:

bash ~/app/yaris-obd/scripts/diagnose.sh        # read-only health check
bash ~/app/yaris-obd/scripts/diagnose.sh --fix  # attempt auto-fix

Checks service state, OBD/UART hardware, disk/DB health, upload backlog, Pi throttling, and prints a cheatsheet of recovery commands. Exit code = number of critical issues found.

Hardware photo